A one-piece printed circuit board connector shell is disclosed in European Patent Application No. 85201751.6. This connector shell is designed to provide electromagnetic interference/electrostatic discharge (EMI/ESD) shielding and a pathway to ground potential in a D-type right angle connector. This prior art connector shell comprises an annular D-shaped nose portion extending outwardly from a planar flange portion. A pair of laterally spaced printed circuit board (PCB) mounting tabs comprise grounding straps that extend rearwardly from the flange. Retaining latches extend downward from the ends of the grounding straps and are adapted to be secured to a printed circuit board. Integral spring fingers are disposed on lateral side portions of the annular D-shaped nose portion for engaging a corresponding D-shaped nose portion of an insulating connector housing.
A pair of jackscrew receiving apertures are located within the planar flange. These jackscrew receiving apertures consist of tapped (threaded) holes in the planar flange that are positioned on the lateral sides of the D-shaped nose portion. They are typically used in this and other prior art connector shell designs as a substitute for loose-piece, internally-threaded sleeve inserts.
In the prior art, threaded sleeve inserts have often been replaced by threaded flange holes in order to reduce the high manufacturing cost associated with loose-piece assembly. Unfortunately, threaded flange holes have also proven to be a limiting aspect of these prior art designs. In particular, they have been found to be prone to stripping when mated to threaded jackscrews. The tendency of threaded flange holes to strip during mating has often resulted in failure of the connector in the field. As a result, flange holes having threads extending through the thickness of the flange have not been cost effective when compared to separately assembled, internally-threaded sleeve inserts.